Yes We Can - vote Histoires de Parfums!

So, if you read this blog, or know me personally, you probably know about my love of all things French (reference my posts from August - October 2008!). Well, lucky for me, my agency began working with Parisian fragrance collection Histoires de Parfums last December.

The collection of 16 fragrances has the coolest backstory - for those with zero knowledge of the French language, "Histoires de Parfums" translates to "Perfume Stories" and each scent tells a story - of a historic figure, legendary place, revered plant or idyllic year. It's fun to learn about the muse behind the fragrance - even the boxes are shaped like an old book to complete the theme.

I have a tough time with fragrance - anything too strong tends to give me a headache - and these are some potent traditional French eau de parfums... But as I've worked with the collection I've learned so much about the power of scent and how to properly appreciate it. My favorites so far? Vert Pivoine: a fresh and watery peony scent, 1889 Moulin Rouge: a unique scent with notes of absinthe and lipstick, 1969: a spicy unisex scent with citrus and chocolate notes, and Tuberose 3: a warm unisex scent with plum and dried grasses.

Speakingggg of Tuberose 3, I have a favor to ask. Histoires de Parfums's new Tuberose Trilogy has received the incredible honor of being named a Top 5 Nominee for the 2010 FiFi Fragrance Foundation Awards. This is HUGE! We're so proud to have made it this far - but now it's up to you!

Everyone is invited to vote for their favorites in each category through this link. If you want to support us, we'd be ever so grateful! Voting is open from today, Wednesday 4/28 - Wednesday 5/19 and the Tuberose Trilogy is nominated under the Unique Boutique category.

Here's some more info about the nominated Tuberose Trilogy, a trio of distinctly different scents all based around the tuberose flower:

• Tuberose 1, Capricieuse: a powdery floral with top notes of bergamot and saffron, middle notes of ylang ylang and iris, and a dry-down of suede and cocoa. A little sweet, a little salty.
• Tuberose 2, Virginale: a floral oriental that opens with mandarin and cherries, leading to middle notes of jasmine and frangipani, and base notes of vanilla and patchouli. Cheery and fruity, and the most feminine of the bunch.
• Tuberose 3, Animale: a leathery floral with top notes of neroli and kumquat, strong middle notes of plum, herbs and dried grasses, and a dry-down of immortelle flower and blond tobacco. The most masculine of the three, but the ladies like it, too!

Not sure if you'd like the scents? I'm happy to send you a sample of your choice (I'm capping this at 10 people though, sorry folks)! Just send me a note or a comment below with your fave of the trio and your address.

Don't forget to vote - Yes We Can, or Oui Nous Pouvons!

my first 5k!

I ran my first 5k this weekend. No stopping, no walking....BOOYAH it felt good.

See, I've always felt kind of pathetic when it came to running. My dad - a runner. My brother - any sport comes naturally to him so he's running a 1/2 marathon in two weeks. Sighh, me - not so much. I was always more into dance and cheerleading growing up. I'm extremely petite (to put it nicely) and my face tends to turn tomato red after running about 10 minutes.

But, in January, when it was freezing cold and I was miserable and feeling the weight of eating too much junk over the holidays, I decided to run a 5k this year. If old men can run marathons, surely I could at least manage to run 3 miles in front of other people without stopping.

So how'd I do it? A cool little training schedule I found online called C25k or 'couch to 5k'. It's technically made for extremely inactive people with zero running experience, so I figured there would be no way for me to fail. The program is 9 weeks long with 3 short runs a week. Week 1 began by alternating 1 minute of running and 1.5 minutes of walking for 20 minutes (easy peasy!) and slowly built up to running 20 minutes straight after 6 weeks, 25 after 7, 28 at 8, and a final week of three 30 minute runs. And voila - 30 minutes is (give or take) about how long a 5k run should take. I felt so good at week 7, I skipped week 8 and went straight to running 30 minutes. My biggest problem ended up being boredom! Running on the treadmill in my apartment facing the wall got pretty boring. I even tried to spice up my wall decor by adding a fake naked picture of Johnny Depp I cut from Cosmo, haha.

I chose a small race in Astoria Park this past weekend for my 5k debut. Just in case I ended up being super slow, I didn't want to get pummeled by a bunch of NYC Road Runners! The race benefitted QSAC - Quality Services for the Autism Community of NYC and LI. That's another cool thing about races - the proceeds always go to good causes, so you feel like you're contributing to something bigger than yourself.

And how'd I do? My finishing time was 33:40 - not so bad for a first time!! I even ended up passing up some guys which made me feel pretty good about myself. I won't lie and say it was easy...I was tired, and I wanted to stop during that last mile, but i didn't need to stop. I knew I could do it. And it was kinda fun having people cheer you on on the sidelines - I liked being cheered for instead of being the cheerleader for once!

In summation, if you need a kick in the pants when it comes to fitness, set a goal for yourself. I do so much better when I have a standard to hold myself to. Things can get boring when you do the same jog, or the same yoga workout every week. If you want to check out the program I used, here's the site: www.c25k.com. Summer is around the corner - so get your butt on the treadmill! ;)